§ Mr. GibbTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the implementation of video identity parades. [105824]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthThe National Video Identification System (NVIS), a system using video images of suspects and look-alike volunteers to crate identification parades, is in the process of being implemented.
Video Identification Parade Electronic Recording (VIPER) is a system developed and operated, on a nonprofit basis, by west Yorkshire police. The Home Office subsequently funded the development of a new VIPER Bureau in west Yorkshire. The Home Office subsequently funded the development of a new VIPER to sites in each of the ten street crime forces and the British transport police. A total of 17,000 compilations have been completed since the system was introduced in April 2002. Plans are in place, subject to appropriate funding, to roll out VIPER to all forces by the end of March 2004.
A national standard for video identification has been drawn up to ensure the NVIS—VIPER and other suitable commercial systems are capable of passing images to the national database. The NVIS aims to increase the number of parades held and the number of positive identifications made.
Video identification has shown marked benefits in the street crime forces and there are numerous examples of this process playing a significant role in bringing perpetrators for serious forces to justice within timescales previously unthinkable. For example, while 51 per cent. of live ID parades may be cancelled before witnesses can eve attend, with video ID that cancellation rate can be as low as 5 per cent.